Comments

John, Thanks, you raise some interesting points. The nature of ‘high value’ corruption in PNG would provide an interesting study.

Excellent article Anthony and great analysis. Reinforces how important it is for those of us who work and live there to be very careful with the narratives we engage in about PNG. It would be great to explore how the Australian (and other countries') media stories impact on cultural narratives for the people of PNG. Thank you.

Hi Rohan and Chris The MP funds is only a term used to refer to a number of funds given to the electorate in which the MP is the CEO/ chairman of these funds, eg DSIP. Out of the DSIP there is a certain % as discretionary fund for the MP to use not for personal gain but still for public good. However in practice the MP ended up deciding for all the funds; how, where, when & whom it should be used. That's why we can simply say "MP funds".

Thanks Tatia and Steve for this post. I think your subject line” the perils of quantifying corruption” would have more to offer than your pertaining post. Why am saying this? Most corruption through bribes and miss appropriation are done through legitimate process by people in legitimate positions, in a way legitimizing the corruption. It is not often done by people outside the system to get things done in their favor but those in the system themselves. So your post can extend to explore the challenges in quantifying this level of corruption would be a better analysis. As Mekere Mourata once said; corruption is systemic and systematic in PNG so we need to explore that. Another point relating to your Figure 1 bar graph, police has the worst case corruption, but in terms of value and wider impact to society (in the context of development) police corruption level would weigh less value and less serious impact to society. Whilst the less worst cases corruption; tendering boards and licensing authorities involves high value corruption cases (millions of kinas involves) and the impact is very serious and cause suffering to society. If you can analysis the value of corruption cases in each sector/level and the impact/suffering/damage it causes would be another step further to quantify corruption. However, the peril of working through to collect data and reach a better analysis of this discourse (corruption) is still higher. In PNG we need an analysis to quantify high levels of corruption with huge value and serious impact to society.

Hi John - if you e-mail FMNR@worldvision.com.au we can send some info

Thanks Bob, for highlighting the ODE/DFAT ‘Investing in Teachers’ report. Readers might be interested in current research within remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, on the CRC’s <a href="https://crc-rep.com/remote-education-systems/project-outputs" rel="nofollow">Remote Education Systems project</a>. Many of the findings of ‘Investing in Teachers’, and your blog comments resonate with our experiences in remote Australia, where the key findings from this five-year research project are: 1. Teacher quality is not the main issue for remote schools, but ensuring teachers have the right qualities is fundamentally important. 2. Education should support local aspirations for culture, land, language and identity. 3. ‘Success’ is defined as parent and community involvement in school. 4. Imposed quick fix solutions (such as attendance strategies) are most effective where there is community engagement 5. Community engagement is important, but engagement must have benefit for parents and students in order to be effective. 6. Schools with more resources tend to get better outcomes. 7. The premise of ‘remote Indigenous disadvantage’ is not supported by remote community members. 8. Contrary to popular belief, there are plenty of jobs for school graduates to take in remote communities, but the pathway from school to work is unclear. 9. Schools with higher proportions of non-teaching staff get better results. 10. Too little is known about the impact of boarding schools – policies developed in an evidence-base vacuum can be potentially harmful for students and communities, unless there are opportunities for students on return to the community.

Seasonal workers should pay tax like everybody else. Problem solved.

Hi, am i USP student studying at S.I campus and am doing a research on youth unemployment in the Solomon islands. am wondering if you could give me some, information and data on youth unemployment in the Solomon's.

Hi Lindy, fantastic post! It's so heartening to hear your experience, and that you've found a solution that works for you and your family. I'm currently in maternity leave with my first little one, from a development job I love that involves a fair bit of international travel. I'd be interested to know whether your workplace's breastfeeding policies extend to practical (and financial) support for your child and carer to travel with you on work trips? And if so, do you have any insight into how common this is? It could make a big difference to the type of development roles women with young children could take on, with support benefitting women and their families, as well as organisations who struggle to retain their future female leaders.

Thanks, Michelle, for raising this point. We've focused mainly on the dollars and cents in this blog, but there are other aspects of Australia's involvement with the Global Fund that are also important to recognise and pay attention to.

Thank you for an interesting article Nematullah Bizhan. I’d be interested to know if the Deputy Minister expressed any views on how experiences from Australia’s assistance can help to inform the Brussel's conference, especially for regional areas like Uruzgan.

Thanks for the comprehensive wrap-up, Camilla. The other concern with Australia's pledge is the potential threat to our seat on the Global Fund Board (shared with Canada). While I'm not suggesting that this is likely, or even imminent, it is possible, with the major likely consequence being that without a vigorous Asia-Pacific presence at the table, the focus on the burden of these three diseases in our region may diminish.